That extra water does more than reshape coastlines. Researchers say higher sea levels increase hydrostatic pressure beneath the surface, adding stress to tectonic faults in areas covered by seawater. Even small changes may matter where a fault is already close to rupture.<\/p>\n
Prof Dr Marco Bohnhoff, lead author of the study and head of GFZ\u2019s geomechanics and scientific drilling section, said sea-level fluctuations of only a few decimetres can be enough to trigger earthquakes. The conclusion is based partly on observations from human-induced seismicity, including water injection for oil, gas and geothermal energy, as well as changes linked to reservoirs and Earth tides.<\/p>\n
Coastal regions are considered especially vulnerable because many major faults and subduction zones lie near the sea. They are also home to about 40% of the world\u2019s population, including fast-growing urban areas and megacities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Istanbul and Tokyo-Yokohama.<\/p>\n
The risk is not limited to ground shaking. Researchers warn that climate-related stress on faults could worsen cascading hazards, including landslides, tsunamis and liquefaction, especially in low-lying coastal areas with soft soils and critical infrastructure. Dr Patricia Mart\u00ednez-Garz\u00f3n of GFZ said such climate-linked earthquake hazards should be considered in the next generation of seismic hazard maps.<\/p>\n
Prof Yehuda Ben-Zion of the University of Southern California, a co-author of the study, also warned that stronger and more frequent storms could make coastal areas more susceptible to landslides, tsunamis and liquefaction during seismic shaking. The researchers called for better monitoring in regions experiencing rapid ice melt, such as Greenland and glacier zones, as well as more detailed assessment of high-risk coastal areas.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s broader message is that earthquake planning can no longer treat climate change as a separate issue. While tectonic forces remain the fundamental cause of earthquakes, rising seas and stronger storms may alter the timing and impact of some events, particularly where faults are already near the end of their seismic cycle.<\/p>\n
Scientists say reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, improving earthquake monitoring and designing more resilient infrastructure will be critical to lowering long-term risk in a warming world.<\/p>\n
References:\u00a0GeoScienceWorld<\/a>,\u00a0BGS<\/a>,\u00a0USGS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That extra water does more than reshape coastlines. Researchers say higher sea levels increase hydrostatic pressure beneath the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[390,125,11152,1397,20103,8170,1909,203531,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-595489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-breaking-news","tag-earth","tag-earthquake","tag-environment","tag-glaciers","tag-global-warming","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","tag-rising-sea-level","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}